Of recent years polymeric films have been utilized to take the place of paper for product labels and the like. Synthetic film labels are stronger and in some respects easier to handle in automatic machinery employed for applying labels to products.
A typical system employs a release layer which carries one or more removable labels therefrom. The label carried by the release substrate has a pressure sensitive adhesive on one side and a product identifying indicia or other information on the other. The release layer is composed of a substrate which has a surface to which the label adhesive will not aggressively adhere. The release characteristics of the substrate and the adhesive are such that when the substrate is bent through a certain angle, the stiffness of the label will cause it to separate from the release surface in spite of the presence of the adhesive. This will permit a container or product to be interfaced with the adhesive layer so that the label will transfer from the release surface to the product to be labeled. This technique happens rapidly and sequentially in automated mechanisms. One shortcoming in general with the use of polymeric films with label stock is that they may not have excellent printability with high speed dot matrix and thermal transfer printers. Thermoplastic label stock is also much desired in contrast to paper labels from the standpoint of recyclability. Paper labels intermixed with recyclable plastic film present a significant problem since the two materials are not easily separable. Thus, there is an ever increasing need for plastic film label stock as opposed to paper labels.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to present a synthetic film-adhesive label face stock having excellent printability.